title: A journey to citizenship: constructions of citizenship and identity in the British Citizenship Test.
abstract: The British Citizenship Test was introduced in 2005 as one of a raft of new procedures aimed at addressing the perceived problems of integration and social cohesion in migrant communities. In this study, we argue that this new citizenship procedure signals a shift in British political discourse about citizenship - particularly, the institutionalization of a common British citizen identity that is intended to draw citizens together in a new form of political/national community. In line with this, we examine the British Citizenship Test from a social psychological perspective to interrogate the ways in which the test constitutes identity, constitutes citizenship, and constitutes citizenship-as-identity. Analysis of the test and its associated documents highlights three ways in which Britishness-as-identity is constituted, that is, as a collective identity, as a superordinate and national identity, and finally as both a destination and a journey. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for models of citizenship and models of identity.
authors.affiliation: University of Winchester, UK.
authors.forename: Debra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gray
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Griffin
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D011057:Politics; D011593:Psychology, Social; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012933:Social Identification; D006113:United Kingdom